After initiating proceedings against Shein for similar reasons, France is toughening its tone. This Wednesday, November 26, the Minister of Commerce Serge Papin confirmed during an interview given to our colleagues at TF1 that the fight would intensify in the weeks to come.
A new offensive against the sale of illegal products online
This time, it is the turn of AliExpress and Joom to be the subject of legal proceedings. According to Serge Papin, these platforms also offer child pornography dolls for sale. The State therefore plans to file a civil legal complaint against them to put an end to these practices which the minister describes as the digital wild west, and potentially obtain their ban. At the same time, the Fraud Repression has discovered the sale of category A weapons, such as machetes and brass knuckles, on other platforms, and plans to also crack down on the subject.
AliExpress said it had removed the affected ads as soon as the legal investigation opened in early November. Measures which are not enough, believes Serge Papin. The government is seeking assurance that these platforms will comply in the future with French and European legislation regarding the protection of consumers and minors, by excluding from their marketplaces illegal products that do not comply with current regulations.
A major legal and political approach
This action is not limited to France, since the minister affirmed that he wanted to take this fight to the European level, stressing that these products are accessible throughout the single market, and that they must logically be the subject of a ban on the same scale. The situation is all the more concrete since a few hours ago, France issued similar threats against Shein, which could be banned in France and Europe for at least three months, the time to return to compliance.
Beyond the fight against illegal content, the government justifies its action by the desire to protect French consumers and defend local industry. Still, the game seems lost in advance: it is difficult to precisely control what passes through foreign platforms, especially when the products come from marketplaces located on the other side of the planet. While waiting to find a viable and effective solution, these measures above all have the effect of a promise: that of a firm desire to combat the trivialization of illegal content and to strengthen regulation on digital commerce.
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